


tear me to pieces, skin to bone

by cupcakeb



Category: Elite (TV)
Genre: Background Rebe/Samu, F/M, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:46:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25097071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cupcakeb/pseuds/cupcakeb
Summary: When Valerio leaves the next morning, her mother gives her a knowing look and says something about this being an upgrade from Samuel, and… Rebe is almost inclined to agree.Except for the fact that he’s irresponsible, addicted to drugs, and generally lacks common sense. If Rebe wanted that sort of drama in her life, she would just go into business with her mom.
Relationships: Rebeca "Rebe" de Bormujo Ávalos/Valerio Montesinos Hendrich
Comments: 9
Kudos: 64





	tear me to pieces, skin to bone

**Author's Note:**

> This started with the prompt “Can’t you see how fucked up this is?” and sort of went from there.

  
  
—  


Rebeka propositions Valerio right away when they get back from winter break, because she’s pissed at Samu, and more pissed at herself for letting herself care enough to be pissed. She’s trying to prove a point to herself; if she’s able to fuck someone else, that might mean her stupid crush isn’t as bad as she thought. 

Valerio seems like a great choice for a hookup, because she knows him, so she won’t have to work hard for it, and he seems pretty into casual sex. (And he’s hot, so.) 

They’ve kissed before, so she knows he’s good at that, and she’s pretty sure he’d be great at other things as well. It’s not her most ladylike moment, but she goes up to him, basically asks him if he wants to fuck, and laughs when he drags her away to the nearest (surprisingly spacious) fancy club bathroom. 

In hindsight, the fact that he can’t get it up is probably for the best. Drunken sex in a bathroom stall seems a little messy, and she probably saves herself from some pretty gnarly bacterial infections by not having to touch any part of the facilities. He still gets her off with his fingers, then kisses her hungrily, and she can’t say she leaves the encounter unsatisfied.

Rebeka isn’t a sentimental person, but she believes in helping her friends when she can. Her mother isn’t home, so she gently suggests Valerio join her when she decides they’ve had enough of drinking and dancing for the night. 

(He likes to cuddle in his sleep, she learns, and tries hard not to like it. In the morning, he wakes her up by trailing a hand up and down her stomach under her shirt. It’s the best morning sex she’s ever had, mainly because she’s never actually let any of her hookups stay the night before; he’s the best by default _and_ merit.)

She tells his sister about his living situation because it seems like the right thing to do. Rebeka is an only child, but if she had a brother, she’d want to know he’s sleeping in his car. 

He glares at her, just a little, when she reveals the fact that they hooked up to Lu, and she wonders why he’s bothered by it.

(Those rumors couldn’t be true, could they?)

** 

The whole problem with being friends with Valerio is the unpredictability of it all. He’s not particularly dependable, and sometimes acts so rash, she barely recognizes him. 

When he shows up at her house, talking about needing a favor, she can tell he’s kind of struggling. She’s never seen an addict go through withdrawal, but she’s pretty sure that’s why he’s being so fidgety and direct. They run into her mother and her stupid party crew, and of course her mother embarrasses her. 

“A date? He’s not a date,” she hears herself say, and kind of cringes at the way the last part comes out. Valerio laughs a little, and she knows he’s having a terrible time of it but she still hits his shoulder because for once she’d like a guy to acknowledge that dating her isn’t just a fucking joke to laugh at. (The whole Samuel thing has left her a little frustrated. Sue her.)

So she’s kind of pissed at him and figures she’ll fuck off upstairs and throw him to the wolves; if he wants to party with her _mother_ , she’s not gonna stick around and watch. She puts on headphones and watches a stupid reality show for a while, then paints her nails and does a face mask. 

When she ventures downstairs a few hours later, it’s mainly to make sure Valerio hasn’t overdosed in a corner somewhere because her mother tends to be very generous with her guests. What she doesn’t expect is to find Valerio in a room with her mom, shirtless and literally on his knees in front of her. He looks uncomfortable, like he didn’t plan on being in this situation, and she forces herself to walk away. 

The masochist in her wants to stay and watch, but she’s a big believer in prioritizing her mental health. Instead, she hovers nearby and waits for him to emerge. Her mother is the first to leave the room, and Rebe doesn’t even glance at her when she walks past her and closes the door behind herself with a thud. Valerio is just kind of sitting there with his head in his hands, and she’s glad he feels at least a little bad about all this. 

Their eyes meet and he looks apologetic, or something, but she doesn’t give a fuck. 

“I never should’ve allowed you to come by,” she scolds, and he sighs and looks away. “Look at me! Fucking look at me, okay?"

He does, and she can tell he’s on a healthy amount of cocaine. The lecture she’s planning on delivering might be mistimed. 

“Can’t you see how fucked up this is?” 

She’s angry now. Angry at him, for being a fucking desperate coke addict, angry at her mother for playing games, and angry at herself for caring about any of this at all. 

The look he gives her is genuine and sad, and she sort feels herself go soft. He’s clearly struggling and she wants to help. _Ugh_ , she wishes she was more of a coldhearted bitch sometimes.

He gets up and walks over to her, touches her stomach where her cropped shirt ends. “I’m sorry, Rebe,” he looks like a lost little boy, completely at the mercy of the world. She actually has to consciously remind herself that he’s a fucking adult, that this was his doing, and he doesn’t deserve her sympathy. 

She groans and rolls her eyes. “You better be fucking sorry.” 

He nods, then hugs her, and she kind of reluctantly hugs him back, then playfully pushes him away.  
  
“Go take a fucking shower,” she says under her breath, more so rolling her eyes at herself than at him. “I’m not letting you sleep in my bed if you smell like my mother.”  
  
It probably says something about her that she can forgive him for things as fucked up as this within the span of minutes, but she’s still pissed at Samu for not texting her back that one time a few weeks ago.  
  
She likes how things with him aren’t always heavy and riddled with meaning.  
  
When he leaves the next morning, her mother gives her a knowing look and says something about this being an upgrade from Samuel, and… Rebe is almost inclined to agree.  
  
Except for the fact that he’s irresponsible, addicted to drugs, and generally lacks common sense. If Rebe wanted that sort of drama in her life, she would just go into business with her mom.  
  
Samu has more of a boy next door vibe, and even if she didn’t have a completely irrational crush on him, she thinks he’d be the safer choice, anyway. All Valerio makes her want to do is be reckless.  
  
Recklessness leads to nothing but trouble, and Rebe has no interest in ending up like her mother.  
  
**  
  
Valerio agrees to move in with Samu, and Rebeka is relieved to know he’ll have a permanent roof over his head. (Even if she didn’t mind having him crash with her every now and again.)  
  
He tells her the news when they’re walking out of school together one day, and she claps him on the back and smiles.  
  
Then she realizes something. “Hey,” she says, and stops walking. He looks at her over his sunglasses. “Don’t tell Samu about…” She gestures between the two of them.  
  
Valerio chuckles. “Wouldn’t dream of it,” he smirks a little. She shouldn’t find that as attractive as she does. “Don’t worry, I won’t stand in the way of your fairytale happy ending.”  
  
She punches his arm and groans. “More like a nightmare.”  
  
When he laughs, casually asks, “Do you wanna get high,” and pulls out some weed, she finds herself nodding.  
  
It’s a steep slippery slope, realizing she might actually like him enough to spend time with him.  
  
(They sit down in a nearby park, and she gets high enough to debate him on the meaning of life.  
  
“Pleasure,” he argues, playing with the buttons on his own shirt. “The whole point of being alive is experiencing pleasure.”  
  
He _would_ say that, she thinks sarcastically. But she doesn’t have any way to refute him, her brain sort of hazy and comfortable in its current state, so she leans over and kisses him, slips her hand under his shirt. “Show me, then,” she says, means for it to be a joke but it comes out all husky and demanding.  
  
And boy, does he show her.  
  
She fucks him in a quiet corner of a deserted public park in the middle of the afternoon on a Tuesday and tries not to feel weird about it.)  
  
**  
  
The whole Ander thing is bumming her out, and when she notices, she feels even worse because if this makes _her_ feel bad, he must be feeling absolutely awful.  
  
They’ve never really interacted before all this, but she sort of instantly wants to make sure he’s okay at all times, starts texting him random gifs when he’s not in class just to make sure he hasn’t, like, hung himself or whatever.  
  
Samuel invites her over to his place where they sit around trying to do school work, and she wants so badly to just tell him why she’s being pensive and weird, but can’t. Samuel seems confused by the cryptic shit she’s spouting and she sighs.  
  
She puts it into clearer terms for him. “Life flies by, Samu,” he’s looking at her weirdly, but she can’t stop herself now. Tells him she spends all her time listening to people’s problems, which she doesn’t even give a fuck about. (His included, honestly.) “What about my shit? No one listens to that.” There are tears in her eyes, and she feels like a fool for crying in front of this boy she likes, about her silly little problems, when someone they both know might die.  
  
“I don’t want to run out of time, man,” she finishes. “I don’t want to regret not doing what I want to do.”  
  
Samu is, of course, oblivious. “Whatever you want to do, you have to just go for it.”  
  
It’s impulsive, maybe, to take that as an invitation to lean in and kiss him, but she does it anyway. If nothing else, she’ll at least know what that’s like now.  
  
It’s way, way too platonic from the get-go, with him just barely kissing her back so she pulls away a little. She’s tried and failed, and that’s fine; at least she put all her cards on the table. She tells him the same.  
  
Then he gives her a long look, sort of calculating, and leans in to kiss her this time, grabs onto her neck and holds her there. It honestly feels too good to be true, to have him pay attention to her this way.  
  
It still feels off, kinda, but she’s sad and he’s comforting her, so if nothing else, this will help her take her mind off all the other shit that’s going wrong in her life.  
  
She stays over and tries not to glare when Valerio spots her in the kitchen in the morning, brushes past her and whispers, “Nice work,” as he runs a hand from her neck down to her collarbone where she’s got a sizable bite mark.  
  
That’s Valerio’s doing, not Samu’s and she’s sure he knows it, too.  
  
Samu walks into the kitchen after his shower, comes over and kisses her cheek, and she wonders if this is gonna be weird now.  
  
**

The thing is, she’d feel bad about keeping the whole Valerio thing from Samu, if she didn’t still catch him gazing at Carla whenever the blonde is in the vicinity. He’s not even a little subtle about it, and it really fucking hurts to see.  
  
She’s not gonna cheat, obviously, because she respects Samuel too much to ever go through with that, but she’d be lying if she said she isn’t tempted, sometimes. Besides, the cynic in her is pretty sure if Carla stopped ignoring Samu, he’d have her on her back in a heartbeat, and there’s no way he’d bother to break up with Rebeka first.  
  
Samuel is distracted, and sometimes he’ll just randomly not show up for their study dates at his place, so she hangs out with his roommate frequently. They flirt a lot, because they both enjoy innuendo. It doesn’t mean anything.  
  
Right now, they’re sat on opposite ends of the couch, and he’s talking about how doing less drugs has greatly improved his ability to focus — verbatim — “amongst other things”.  
  
Rebe laughs and puts her feet up in his lap, smirking when he automatically starts running his hands up and down her knee high socks. Yeah, she thinks they’re hot, too.  
  
“Well, I’m sure the female student population at Las Encinas will be thrilled to find out you’ve gotten your drug problem under control, if only to ensure certain bodily functions work again,” she alludes, and his eyes sort of linger on hers, his gaze challenging.  
  
He rolls them at her. “I’m surprised you even remember that.”  
  
She means to be coy when she looks at him through her lashes and says, quietly, "I remember," and it must work, because he just raises his brow at her, scoffs and looks away.  
  
Samuel walks in then, an hour later than he promised to be here, and doesn’t even blink an eye when he finds her with Valerio like that, whose hands are toying with the tops of her socks.  
  
Just once, she’d like to see him get a little jealous and territorial over her, too.  
  
**  
  
When Samu is late to meet her again, she sits outside his door and waits for him there, just to drive home the point that she’s pissed. Yes, she’s got a key, but she wants him to understand that he can’t keep doing this to her.  
  
She doesn’t even like to smoke, but she’s angry enough to light a cigarette. “Where the hell were you?”  
  
Samuel looks guilty, and Rebe sort of decides that means she’s right. He must’ve been with Carla. “Sorry, my phone died,” he says, and she doesn’t buy it.  
  
“It must be broken, then, because the text I sent you shows up as 'read’,” she gets up and walks towards him.  
  
He looks sort of caught out, and it pisses her off further. “If you want me to be a marquesa, just tell me to fuck off and we can both stop wasting our time,” she says, angry, then suddenly feels vulnerable. “You were with her again, right?”  
  
A part of her honestly wants him to just admit it, because the uncertainty is driving her crazy. She hates being jealous, and she hates that she cares enough to confront him, even now.  
  
“I was at the police station,” he says instead, and wow — way to make her feel even worse. Here she is, assuming the worst, when he was trying to find a way to get his family back together. Maybe she’s a terrible girlfriend.  
  
He asks her what he can do to make her feel less insecure about their relationship and she decides against saying the first thing that comes to mind — delete Carla’s number and transfer to another school — and smiles at him instead.  
  
“Maybe you could come over here and stick your tongue down my throat,” she says, and he kisses her, brief. She’s the first one to pull away, because she feels weird about her paranoia, and the jealousy, and generally just isn’t sure she wants to be touching him for a while.  
  
“Come on, let’s hit the books,” and she means that, too, because that’s another thing she’s struggling with: finding a way to make something out of herself, to avoid following in her mother’s footsteps.  
  
**  
  
This whole vendetta against Polo is getting old. Rebe quickly grows tired of seeing Samu talking quietly with Guzmán, scheming about something or another. Polo shows up at Yeray’s stupid party, and it’s like Samu forgets Rebeka exists, instead choosing to channel all of his energy into glaring at Polo.  
  
He straight up disappears at some point, and she can’t get ahold of him, which is just _great_. It’s not like she was planning to spend the evening having a good time with the guy she’s dating, or anything.  
  
She runs into Valerio at the bar as he’s ordering a bottle of champagne, and raises a brow at him. Polo and Cayetana are sort of watching him, and she’s glad Samu isn’t around or he might pick a fight with Valerio for fraternizing with the enemy.  
  
She grins and him and feigns offense. “Found someone new to drink with already, huh?”  
  
He gives her this little, private smile, says, “Kinda had to,” and she tries not to read into it.  
  
Later, when she finds Samuel waiting for her outside her house, she’s tipsy and fucking pissed. He keeps disappearing on her and is being shady as fuck, and then has the audacity to claim he left the party because he was feeling _overwhelmed_ , of all things? Fucking bullshit.  
  
But then he asks her if he can stay over, and well, she did have a decent amount of tequila, which always makes her feel kind of horny, so she agrees, “As long as we don’t sleep.”  
  
She’s not even wearing heels, and he’s still slightly shorter than her like this, and for some reason she finds herself thinking of how nice it felt to have Valerio towering over her instead as she leans down to kiss Samu.  
  
Well. Okay.  
  
**  
  
On Valentine’s Day, she wakes up to police officers in every room of her house, her mother nowhere to be found, and kind of feels a little too calm, considering. It’s almost like she expected this to happen at some point.   
  
At school, people are talking about her, most of them not even bothering to be subtle, and she rolls her eyes and sighs. Leave it to fucking Las Encinas to basically welcome the guy who murdered his classmate back with open arms, but make fun of her for shady shit her mother allegedly pulled. 

They’ve got a free period before lunch, so she finds Valerio and asks if he wants to take her to this nice Italian place nearby so they can grab food. Samu is sitting with Guzmán, looking all pensive and scheme-y again, and she wants no part in any of that.

Valerio leans on the desk they’re sharing, gets all up in her space, a mock-serious look on his face. “You wanna spend Valentine’s Day with me, Rebe?”  


She doesn’t mean to watch his face closely as he licks his lips and grins, but she is and she does, so there’s that.  


Her own grin turns into a smirk and she shoots back, “If you can make it worth my while.”  
  
The pizza is really good. 

The guilty feeling that settles low in her stomach when she gets a text from Samu, asking where she is? Less good.  
  
After lunch, Azucena bursts into class to talk to her, and she honestly thinks her day couldn’t get any worse.The way everyone rallies around her when they find out she might be kicked out is kind of endearing, but Rebeka hates being pitied.  
  
The only saving grace is when Valerio practically comes running out of the classroom, late to the party, and grabs her shoulder as he joins them. She thinks that’s fucking hilarious, and if she wasn’t crying, she’d probably crack up.  
  
**

The last thing Rebe thought she’d be doing on her first-ever Valentine’s Day in a relationship is stand around a dimly lit kitchen table with her boyfriend and the guy she used to fuck, discussing how they can best profit off of the fairly large amount of drugs sitting on the table in front of them. It’s slightly ridiculous.  
  
Valerio offers to help her sell them, wants fifty percent of the profits, and it’s a pretty good deal so she’s considering it.  
  
“I’m a reliable guy,” he says, then laughs kind of maniacally, and if she wasn’t having the weirdest fucking day, she’d probably laugh, too. He’s in this weird lacy couture shirt which is completely see-through, probably for Lu’s party, and she finds herself glancing at his abs underneath.  
  
The party is kind of cool, honestly. She puts some eyeliner on Samu, making him look more brooding than ever and it works for him. It’s still a tense evening, and she’s very relieved when Samu suggests they leave early.  
  
When they get back, Valerio isn’t home, and she doesn’t want to think about whose bed he’s sleeping in tonight. Samuel kisses her, and she lets him, but her head’s not really in it. What little spark they had has all but faded.  
  
**  
  
Valerio gets drunk, which Rebeka isn’t sure she’s ever seen before. High, sure, all the time, but drunk? This is new. It apparently means he drops the whole power of love, slurred speech habit he likes and just becomes blunt. She thinks she likes it.  
  
They’re out at this weird punk party she wanted to go to, which Samuel had no interest in attending, and frankly, she didn’t want him there anyway. He’d spend the night being annoyed at not liking the music, or the people the music attracts, and Rebe wants to be able to let go and enjoy herself. When she brought it up, Samu actually called Valerio over and suggested he go with her which — well, if he knew about their history of drunken hookups, he might not have been so quick to suggest he accompany her, but here they are.  
  
It’s their well-deserved night off from drug dealing.  
  
Her mother is in fucking prison, she almost got kicked out of school because Las Encinas is elitist as fuck, and she deserves this.  
  
The party is actually really fun. Punk isn’t her favorite genre of music, but every now and then she kind of enjoys feeling like she’s part of the scene. They drink shots of jaeger and shitty draft beer all night, none of the fancy shit she usually ends up having when they’re out with the rest of their classmates, and she loves the low key intimacy of the venue. She loves how relaxed Valerio is, how he dances like a madman, how he keeps pulling her close to his chest like he wants to slow-dance — even though the music is far too hardcore for that.  
  
He chuckles against her neck at some point and she doesn't know what's funny. Over the music, he just says, "It's sort of pathetic that I want to fuck you so bad."  
  
If she wasn’t having the worst week _ever_ , she’d like to think she’d have more common sense than to push back against him and let him nuzzle her neck. 

“You’re awful.”

Without hesitating, Valerio replies, “You like it.”

And yeah, she does. She’s not gonna lie.  
  
They go home together later, too, because she still can’t go back into her house for another few days while the police finish gathering evidence, and Samu is passed out on the couch when they walk in, snoring.  
  
Valerio giggles, then shushes himself and pulls her towards his bedroom. She goes willingly, but stops short of walking in with him because she knows better than to do this, especially with Samuel just a few steps away.  
  
He tightens his grip on her wrist and pulls her close, brushes the hair off the nape of her neck and leans in to bite at her ear. Having him be this close to her drives her just a little crazy, and she has to squeeze her eyes shut and bite her lip to resist doing something stupid, like kiss him.  
  
“Valerio,” she whispers, and means for it to come out like a warning. It doesn’t. “You’re drunk.”  
  
He lets out a tsk-tsk and runs a hand from her neck down to her cleavage, then splays his hand on her bare rib cage, under her crop top. She kind of shivers at his featherlight touch, and he grins at her.  
  
“You’re fun,” he says, then makes eye contact with her. She kind of lets out a low moan and he looks satisfied at that, like he’s won. “Let me make you feel good.” He sounds genuine, like he knows she’s been having a terrible time lately, and it’s almost enough to make her do this. (It's more concern than her boyfriend has shown, anyway, so there's that, too.)  
  
He’s drunk, and she’s drunk enough, and she’s dying for a distraction from her miserable life. It’s a recipe for disaster. His touch still feels ridiculously cathartic and she’s suddenly very, very tempted to give in. God, she’d kill for an orgasm right now.  
  
She sort of falls forward, leans her forehead against his and feels her breathing turning heavy. Her brain starts a last-ditch appeal to her sanity. No. She can’t do this to Samu. She can’t.  
  
“Goodnight, champion,” she mutters, then pulls away from him and practically runs to Samuel’s bedroom, closing the door behind herself.  
  
Throwing herself on his bed, she doesn’t hesitate for even a second before she’s got her shorts undone and a hand in them, trying not to scream at how good the touch of her own hand feels. (His would’ve felt better, she knows.)  
  
Finally, she comes with a muffled groan, tries to bury her face in a pillow to stifle it and wonders if Valerio is doing the same thing next door.  
  
She honestly kind of wants to cry. She doesn't know why.  
  
**  
  
It takes a fairly simple plan and the stupid blackout party to find out Samuel is the one who ratted out her mother. All she needs is a little fluorescent paint, and a bullshit story about security footage, and she’s got him.  
  
If she’s being honest with herself, she doesn’t think she even needed the proof; she’s had her suspicions for a while.  
  
Punching him feels oddly freeing.  
  
(Finally, all of those hours of working on her right hook pay off.)  
  
**  
  
She stops speaking to Samuel, basically, except for when she sees him in passing while discussing business with Valerio.  
  
Her mother is gloating, of course. She tells her she always knew Samuel was gonna rat them out and Rebe decides she doesn’t care enough to mention she used to call him her future son-in-law jokingly.  
  
Valerio seems pretty busy with his weird threesome, but hey, she’s not gonna judge. They hang out a lot, anyway, and if he’s noticed she’s broken up with Samuel, he hasn’t let on.  
  
They’re sitting right outside school, passing a bottle of whiskey back and forth, and she’s pretty sure the fact that it’s in a paper bag doesn’t make this any more subtle.  
  
He tells her he wants to stop selling, and she literally almost fucking slaps him, in front of the entire school. She does not need another person giving her shit about this right now. She does end up yelling at him, goes on a little rant, and all he does is sit there and nod, letting her vent.  
  
When she’s done, he takes a large gulp of whiskey, then offers her the bottle.  
  
“Welcome back,” he says, like he’s somehow glad to see her angry like this, and she ends up laughing despite herself.  
  
A few days later, they’re in her living room, getting more of the drugs packaged, and he gives her a strange look.  
  
She turns the music down on her phone and stares at him. “What? Not a fan of Shakira?”  
  
He chuckles, shakes his head. Good. Shakira is fucking amazing, that would be a huge friendship dealbreaker for her. “You seem tense,” he says instead, and she rolls her eyes, expecting the innuendo.  
  
Shockingly, he doesn’t hit on her. “We could… indulge a little,” he points to the cocaine in front of them.  
  
Rebe shakes her head, laughing. He seems slightly disappointed and pouts a little. “I’m more of a molly girl, actually,” she says, and the grin is right back on his face. “Let’s finish packing this shit and get fucked up.”  
  
The key perk to her mother still being in prison is probably this — being able to throw a two people rave in her fucking living room at five o’clock in the afternoon on a random Wednesday.  
  
It’s really fun. It’s been a while since she let herself take anything, and she definitely doses it a little too high, but that’s part of the fun, too.  
  
He tells her he’s no longer “with” Polo and Cayetana at some point, and she sort of laughs and tackles him, all her inhibitions gone. He laughs and calls her selfish.  
  
“Sorry, did you expect me to be sad about that?”  
  
They make out on and off for most of the night, sometimes while dancing, sometimes while they do other random shit, and she finally drags him outside and makes him go skinny dipping with her. (It’s nothing he hasn’t seen before, so she doesn’t want to bother with underwear.)  
  
Neither of them has been pretending they weren’t always going to end the night like this — naked and clinging to one another — anyway, and the pool is a nice way to cool down after all the dancing.  
  
When he’s got her backed up against the pool ladder with three fingers inside her, he breathes, “I fucking missed this,” and she feels like her soul is about to leave her body. It’s _that_ intense.  
  
She screams his name, can’t help herself, and her neighbors might hear, but she doesn’t give a fuck about that either.  
  
She wakes up naked in her bed, with very little recollection of how she got there, and Valerio’s already sitting up, just watching her come to. They’ll have to get ready for school soon, and she groans.  
  
“Don’t be fucking creepy,” she catches his eye and laughs. He moves his hand down to her ass and slaps it, just lightly. “Perv.”  
  
He grins at her. “We have to be at school in exactly 67 minutes. Let’s take a shower.”  
  
They walk into class together fifteen minutes late, and she’s kind of glad everyone else is wrapped up in their own drama so no one takes note of them.   
  
He winks at her halfway through their math exam, and she kind of swoons, just a little.  
  
_Ugh_. She’s so fucking easy.  
  
**  
  
Her mother gets out of prison, and Rebeka is weirdly excited to have her back. They’re no Lorelai and Rory, but they’ve been through some shit together, and she’s glad to have her in her corner again.  
  
“You’ve been doing an awesome job running the family business,” she says when Rebe tells her she got expelled, and she’s too overwhelmed to tell her that’s not what she wants for herself. “From now on it’s the two of us, working hand in hand.”  
  
Rebe sighs. For once, she’d like her life to be simple.  
  
She’s pretty sure being friends with Valerio is the easiest thing in her life right now.  
  
He texts her, asks if she wants to crash the graduation ceremony with him, and she grins.  
  
A fun night of drinking and trashing their classmates is exactly what she needs.  
  
He picks her up an hour later, wearing this form-fitting short-sleeved silk shirt and she can’t resist the urge to kiss him, even as her mom watches on.  
  
“Mom, you remember Valerio, right?”  
  
Her mother laughs, says something inappropriate and sends them on their way.  
  
“After you,” Valerio says as she gets in the car. “Ready for a night we won’t forget?”  
  
She grabs his hand and smiles. She’s ready.  
  
**

**Author's Note:**

> find me [on tumblr](http://cupcakeb.tumblr.com/)


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